From the Deterministic to the Emergent: Design strategies for Networked Audio-Visual Nodal Systems

The use of repeating arrays, grids and fields of electrically or electronically activated devices in art and design has evolved as a result of experiments in art and technology in the 1960s and ’70s, and the influences of decentralisation of computing and the Internet. This research interrogates the phenomenon of networked audio-visual (or luminosonic) objects – that is to say, devices that independently produce synchronised sound and light while communicating with their peers in a grid or field arrangement – and seeks to understand this creative design environment and the experiential implications of these systems. This research draws on theories of immersion, audio-visual aesthetics, atmospheres and emergence to position these devices in a broader experiential field. The range of behaviours these devices can evoke is explored through a range of creative explorations that build specific behavioural taxonomies, ranging from the solipsistic to the gregarious, from the deterministic to the emergent. The research finds that basic behaviours operate from an intrinsic logic not influenced by any external input, while more complex ones adhere to grid-based or synchronous communication paradigms, where neighbouring devices have influence on the gestalt aesthetic. This research argues that the connectivity, materiality and agency of such devices suggests a particular ontology and as such presents a number of specific challenges and affordances to the creative practitioner. The layout and configuration of these ‘media multiplicities’ generates an audio-visual spatial articulation. Practice-based research explores the alignment, orientation and scaling of groups of devices in order to better understand the impact that spatialisation has on these ecologies. The outcome of the creative research is a behavioural taxonomy, an experiential reflection, and a range of tools and methodologies that may be useful for designers working within the framework of networked, luminosonic objects.<p></p>